Indian Railways' total earnings jumped 12.1% to Rs 157,880 crore last financial year (2014-15) as compared to Rs 140,761 crore in the previous fiscal, the rail ministry informed today.
Freight earnings, which account for 66% of total earnings, grew 12.7% to Rs 107,074 crore last fiscal. This was despite a mere 4.7% increase in freight volumes to 1,101 million tonne.
The rail ministry had raised freight rates by 5.8% in April 2013, 1.7% in October 2013 and 6.5% in June 2014.
Also, a congestion surcharge of 10% is being levied on all goods traffic including containers originating from ports since November 2014. Rail minister Suresh Prabhakar Prabhu had hiked freight rates by an average 3% across commodities in the rail budget 2015-16.
Earnings from the passenger segment grew 14.3% to Rs 42,866 crore in 2014-15 from 37,458 crore in the previous fiscal.
The historic earnings were registered despite a 2.3% decline in passenger volumes, indicating high passenger fares. Passenger fares were hiked by 5% in June 2013, 2% in October 2013 and 14.2% in June 2014.
Within the passenger segment, volumes in the suburban category dipped 1% to 4,503 million while non-suburban passenger volumes plummeted 4% to 3,724 million last financial year.
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